Beach house

We went to the beach house today, meeting our real estate agent as we wait for our end-of-January closing. We picked up Grammy and Grampy, then met Mike and Mary on the side of the road (quite literally). Janel and Ryan met us in Port Townsend, then we eventually met up with Randy, Sary-Jo, David & Daniel for a Ethiopian food in Seattle. It was really nice to be able to visit the house again, and our excitement is building. The more time that passes, the more we are confident we made the right decision to buy this house. The beach is so marvelous. In a matter of two hours it went from serene:

to blustery:

We tend to just hang out at the beach, throw rocks, walk and talk. You can't tell it from how Ermias is dressed, but it was very cold. Perhaps this picture better shows it:

Here is a view of the community on the point. You can start to get a feel for the layering of the mountains. As the day went on you could see the snow-capped Olympics.

We are excited! :)

Averill Christmas

About a third of our clan was sick today, but we still had enough to fill three tables and one very full couch. 

It was fun to have two babies, Odin and Whitney. This family continues to grow!

Mary Did You Know

Kenzie and Lauren sang a duet in church tonight, "Mary Did You Know?"

Christmas Eve

Both boys still believe. Ermias is very excited for Santa to show up tonight and was anxious to get everyone in bed. On the way home from Carol and Clyde's they were talking about how Santa stays in his sled as he flies. Mason tries to deny that he still believes, but in his heart he still does. He told Grammy that he's going to get up and put out 8 carrots to see if Santa takes them.

Touchy Tessa

Remember Tessa who Ermias' teacher said he was annoying by touching her all the time? We have since met the mother, and Tessa has invited him over for a play date. Ermi is her favorite person in class. 

So how's that "no touching" rule going? Not so well. 

Heavy hearts

This was a rough week for us. Within four days we attended two funerals, both parents of two different friends of Mason. The first was a suicide of the mother, a woman who struggled with depression but was happy to be at our house for the soccer party. We spent many soccer games beside her and her 7 year old daughter, as our sons played together. The second was a dad who we (mostly Cindy) spent many long baseball games beside. Cindy and Phil were good buds, chatting away the boredom of the games, and sharing their pride in their kids. He got cancer and died within a month of diagnosis. As hard as this was for us, we are adults and have more perspective. As a 10 year old, however, Mason has seen two of his good buddies experience one of his greatest fears. He has a lot of questions about death and sickness, and we try to answer them all. But he is extra affectionate with us, and worried. Cindy went missing (to the store) for about an hour and he was worried she got in a car accident. He asked me "what, am I going to wake up one morning and one of you will be dead?"

But even though we knew it was hard on him, we took him to both funerals. We felt it was important for him to show his friends he cares. He gave hugs and did his best to crack a joke (even if not totally appropriate). He took it all in, and probably grew up a bit. Our hearts are heavy for our friends who will now grow up without one parent. Somehow this seems especially cruel the week before Christmas.

Thoughtful

Mason bought a present for Casey. It never was going to happen. 

Cute and ugly

Kinsey had an ugly sweater party tonight. With about 10 minutes to spare we realized we didn't have a Christmas sweater. She "borrowed" grandma's red sweater and we got out a couple of squares of felt, my hot glue gun, and a strand of battery operated lights. The still photo doesn't really do it justice.

Mr Clean

Everybody was gone tonight except for Ermias  and me. I worked a bunch and he was perfectly happy entertaining himself. At first he drew his letters, which lasted about 30 minutes. Then, without any prompting he went over to the sink and said, "Mommy I'm going to wash the dishes." There was quite a bit of banging, extreme running water, and a few near misses, but the pile of dinner dishes seem to be going down every time I checked. I certainly did not want to micromanage this and risk in anyway deterring him from remebering this as an incredibly awesome experience.

At one point I heard counting "eight, nine" and I looked over and he was pulling out tissues one at a time. It was then that I realized he had used all of the paper towels and it found a box of Kleenex to continue wiping up the minor flooding that had happened. I was still committed to playing it cool and rewarding the positive intent. So I said "how about you get a towel out of the drawer?" He did that, more running water, another dropped lid or two, and I retreated back into my work happy to hear the sound of cleaning in the background.

The next thing I knew I heard the dishwasher running. I got up in the sink was completely empty! I gave him enormous hug and thank him for doing such a great job. It wasn't until Cindy got home that we opened the dishwasher. We had a good laugh. 

Beach Casita

Our offer was accepted today! We are all very excited to have a place on the beach that we can call our own. Now let's just hope that our schedules are generous enough to allow us time to enjoy it. 

Pageant

This years pageant was put on by the kids. They were birds. Ermias didn't care. 

The other two...not so impressed. 

House hunting

We have been talking about a second home, one that we could escape to on the water, for about 20 years. We have found a house that we are interested in and today made our second trip out to Port Townsend to check it out. We haven't decided for sure, but we are seriously leaning in that direction. 

All Mason cares about is the fact that there are fish. My biggest concern is that he would never stop talking about fish ever again. Ever. He said his top reason for wanting the house is it there are fish. His second reason is that there are salmon and his third reason is that there are halibut. Final reason: rock fish. That's all it takes, he's sold. 

Ethiopia Reads

For the second year we all attended the auction that benefits Ethiopia Reads. And, for the second year, Ermias made his share of friends, mostly girls. Mason got to hang out with his cousins while Kenzie and a few of her friends worked the entire evening. She was happy that she got six hours of volunteer time for school credit.

Grammy almost won an iPad by touching her head. 

These two in particular are hilarious:

All the volunteers:

Basketball

For some reason Mason likes to be point guard and convinces his basketball coach that's a good thing. He plays hard, as with everything he does, but they still are 0-2. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that their name is "Purple Hippos."

Crystal voices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aad660DcdW8

Gunners party

For the second year in a row we hosted the end of season gunners soccer party, also known as 10-year-old madness. We had a houseful of parents, soccer players, and siblings. It was as loud as our house ever gets. It was a great time and almost everybody stayed the full three hours. The boys love "Conchie," their coach. after they took a few pictures Mason lead the pack asking "can we take him down now? And they all turned on him. Somehow he stayed on his feet and escaped. 

Notice that Ding and Dong are positioned on either side of Conchie, of course. 

  

Santa via Train

Diane and Eric took Ermias on his first train ride. They went to see Santa in Snoqualmie. In what we are going to take as a positive sign of his full adjustment to American life (and possibly grooming by his big brother), he asked Santa for a new iPad and a phone. Well, that's not happening.

Christmas Tree 2014

This was the fifth year of our Christmas tree expedition at Christmas Creek with Liz and Casey. Each year is different. As we look back over the years we have had different members of our extended family join us, from Felix to Borja, to friends. But this is the second year with Ermias, and it is now that we get to anniversary him being here. He recognized Santa and was excited for the tradition. It's quite amazing to me that after just one time through, he already believes in Santa and feels a strong connection. As we were searching for trees a random white guy with a beard and a red shirt walked to his car, and Mason and Ermias both ran to him yelling "Santa!"

Then as we waited in line to have our pictures taken, Ermias kept peeking between the adults for a glimpse of Santa, and excitedly waving. Last year Santa was a weird white guy in a red velvet suit. This year he's magical. Ermias sat on his lap, as if he had done it every year of his life.

Devan and Kenzie's friend Luca joined us, and we realized we were a group with four adults and seven kids!

Mr. Touchy

Ermias has a wonderful teacher who again wrote a note home to us regarding Mr. Touchy. When he came home we talked about who he touches in class. He knew immediately it was Tessa. I asked if he was supposed to touch her and he said "hands to self?" Then I asked if he was still going to touch her. He nodded yes!!!! I locked eyes and he then shook his head no. 

Dear Cindy and Julie, 

I just wanted to touch base with you about Ermias. He is having a tough week with friends in our class. One thing that we are working on is staying in our own personal space bubbles. We talked a lot about this last week but he is still struggling. Today I had to ask him to take his work to another table because he was frequently touching the student next to him despite the student and I asking him to stop.

 

When I spoke to him afterwards he could tell me that he knows that he needs do “hands to self” but he is having difficulty applying that knowledge to social situations. I know we spoke earlier this year about the language and cultural pieces that are still developing regarding personal space but I think he could use a little extra support. I can see the huge academic gains he is making and I am excited about his progress. I know the support he gets at home has been instrumental to his progress so I thought I would reach out for that same, great support with the personal space struggle.

 

He is so loving towards his friends and I know their affection means the world to him. I want to do everything in my power to help him feel successful both academically and socially! Let me know if I can support you in any way.

 

Thank you for partnering with me on this. 

Cindy relied to Mrs. Weller.  

Thank you for sharing this with us. 

It is difficult to explain to him that an act that is so culturally natural for him is not so accepting here. He is such a loving kid and happy most often. (99% of the time he is smiling) 

We talked to him about personal space and will continue that on a daily basis. We want to reward him for working on this so each day we will ask him if he stayed in his own space. If you could make a mental note from today until conference time how well he has done then we can talk with you and see if it is working or if we need something more. I am also willing to come in if need be. 

He really loves going to school everyday. Learning and being with other kids is important to him.

Thank you for your patience, time and being so great with him. We really appreciate it. 

And then back from Mrs. Weller:

 

Thank you again for your support. He is one lucky little guy to have such an amazing family! He had a wonderful day and I couldn’t wait until conferences to share that!!

In an attempt to celebrate I asked him" so did you touch Tessa today?"

He replied "no, she wasn't there. She was sick."

Perhaps too soon to waive the victory flag. 

Monopoly

Mason's favorite game and his favorite trainee. 

My little girl

...found the red lipstick for the play

Door #1

Kenzies school put on a cute play called Alice@wonderland. She auditioned and got a speaking part as Door #1. They have three performances this weekend.

Growing: 51.6 lbs!

That's about 25% increase in a year. Good job to our little eater!

Mason's class

New neighbors

We got a new bird feeder and have been watching all our new friends. This guy about exceeds the weight capacity but sure is fun to watch.